Unlimited Wireless Internet at low cost ($20-30/month)

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.ericsson,alt.cellular.motorola,alt.cellular.nokia (More info?)

Or why Ricochet <http://www.ricochet.com/> is dead.

The reason: Affordable wireless (cellular) data, usable with a notebook
computer (or PDA, etc.), with broad coverage at decent or better speeds, is
now a reality:

CDMA

* Verizon was an early leader in this area with its $80/month CMDA-based
Unlimited NationalAccess (CDMA 1X, typically 40-60 Kbps, broad coverage) and
BroadbandAccess (CDMA EV-DO, typically 300-500 Kbps, but thus far only in
Washington DC, San Diego and Las Vegas).
<http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/mobileoptions/nationalaccess/>
Verizon Wi-Fi is currently only available to Verizon Online DSL and dial-up
Internet customers. <http://www.verizon.net/wifi/faqs/>

* SprintPCS calls its similar CMDA 1X-based wireless data PCS Vision, but
apparently offers no unlimited plan -- the $80/month plan is capped at 300 MB,
with additional data at a pricey $2/MB (charged by the KB).
<http://www1.sprintpcs.com/explore/servicePlansOptionsV2/DataPlans.jsp>
Unlimited Sprint PCS Wi-Fi Access is available month-to-month for $50/month,
but coverage seems more limited than T-Mobile.
<http://www.sprint.com/business/products/categories/wifi.jsp>

GSM (GPRS/EDGE/UMTS)

The real news is that GSM carriers, led by T-Mobile, have now pushed the price
of unlimited data much lower:

* T-Mobile Internet Unlimited is available both alone at $30/month (with 20
cents/minute calling), and as a voice plan add-on for $20/month. Based on
GPRS, typical speeds are 40-50 Kbps. Faster EDGE is not currently available.
<http://www.t-mobile.com/plans/default.asp?tab=internet> Unlimited T-Mobile
HotSpots (Wi-Fi, widely available) can be added for another $30/month on a
1-year contract ($40 month-to-month). <http://www.t-mobile.com/hotspot/>
If all you need is unlimited WAP and email, T-Mobile has Unlimited t-zones at
only $5/month (WAP + Internet email) or $10/month (WAP + Internet and
corporate email).
<http://www.t-mobile.com/info/opt_services/t-zones/basic.asp>

* Cingular responded to T-Mobile with its MEdia Works unlimited data (plus
1500 Text/Instant Messages and 200 Multimedia Messages) voice plan add-on for
$20/month <http://www.cingular.com/media/media_purchase>. Both GPRS (typical
speeds of 40-50 Kbps) and EDGE (typical speeds of 120-150 Kbps) are included
and widely deployed. Wi-Fi service to Cingular customers is to be provided by
SBC FreedomLink, with unlimited access at $20/month on a 1-year plan, but
coverage (e.g., UPS Stores) seems more limited than T-Mobile.
<http://www02.sbc.com/Products_Services/Residential/ProdInfo_1/1,,1315--1-3-3,00.html>

* AT&T Wireless is priced between T-Mobile/Cingular and Verizon, with enough
unpleasant fine print to choke a horse. Mobile Internet Unlimited for Laptops
(which has the least restrictions) is $80/month (voice plan add-on).
<http://www.attwireless.com/personal/features/mmode/plans.jhtml> There's also
less expensive $25/month Unlimited mMode (voice plan add-on), but it has a
surcharge of $.001/KB ($1/MB) with a connected device (e.g., laptop, PDA)
<http://www.attwireless.com/personal/features/mmode/plans.jhtml>. UMTS
(typical downlink speeds of 220-320 Kbps, available in six major metro areas
including San Francisco) is available on both of these plans, albeit only with
a carrier-supplied device, in addition to EDGE and GPRS (which are widely
available). Like T-Mobile, AT&T Wireless has unlimited Wi-Fi available,
$35/month as an add-on to a data plan, or $40/month as an add-on to a voice
plan, but coverage seems more limited than T-Mobile.
<http://www.attwireless.com/smallbusiness/solutions/laptop/wifi.jhtml>
AT&T Wireless is expected to become part of Cingular by roughly the end of the
year, and be completely switched to the Cingular brand within the following
six months. In the meantime, Customer Service is somewhat chaotic.

iDEN

Nextel Packetstream Gold Service offers unlimited data at $55/month.
Coverage is more limited and speed (19.2 Kbps, plus compression like Cingular
Data Acceleration) is slower than CDMA or GSM (GPRS/EDGE/UMTS).
<http://nextel.com/services/nextelonline/packetstream_gold.shtml>
Nextel just introduced high-speed Wireless Broadband (based on FLASH-OFDM
<http://www.flarion.com/> ) with claimed low latency and unlimited data at
typical down-/up-link of 1.5 Mbps/375 Kbps for $75/month, 1.0 Mbps/200 Kbps
for $65/month, and 750 Kbps/200 Kbps for $50/month. Availability is currently
limited to the Research Triangle (Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill) in North
Carolina. <http://www.nextelbroadband.com/>

REAL WORLD RESULTS

I've been using Cingular MEdia Works, currently at GPRS speeds by means of a
Bluetooth connection from a Windows XP notebook computer to a Sony Ericsson
Z600 handset. Cingular supports both "Data Acceleration" (see below) and raw
connections. Over a raw connection, my typical speeds (50 Kbps down/12.5 Kbps
up) and throughput (5 KBps down on compressed data) have been comparable to a
good V.90 dial-up modem, although latency at roughly 700 ms (as measured by
ping) is much worse. (Bluetooth does not significantly contribute to
latency.) Overall I'm pleased with both coverage and performance. I'll be
comparing faster EDGE speeds (widely available) as soon as I get an
EDGE-capable handset or PC Card (e.g., Sony Ericsson GC82).

Cingular's Data Acceleration (DA) uses compression to improve the throughput
of web (HTTP) and email (POP3, IMAP) downlink traffic. The primary benefit
seems to come from greatly compressing graphics; the visual result is
significantly degraded, but still quite usable, and the performane boost is
substantial, on the order of 2x for typical graphics-heavy web pages. In
addition, compressible email attachments larger than 8K bytes are compressed
into .CAB files, which raise some possible issues (e.g., with anti-virus
scanning), but I personally haven't found it to be a problem. Overall, DA
works well enough that I normally use it rather than a raw connection.

VOICE OVER IP

Given unlimited data, and a willingness to put up with high wireless latency,
with Skype you should be able to make unlimited Skype-to-Skype voice calls at
no additional cost, to a landline in the USA or other Global Rate countries
for only about 2 cents/minute, or to other overseas landlines at rates far
below cellular carrier rates. Vonage, which has a variety of calling plans,
would presumably be another option. Caveat: I haven't yet tried this.

POTENTIAL GOTCHAS

* Handsets (and PC Cards) do not all have the same data performance! In
general, all reasonably recent GPRS/EDGE-capable devices from Ericsson and
Sony Ericsson support Class 8 (4+1) and Class 10 (4+2, max of 5), whereas most
Nokia devices are limited to slower Class 4 (3+1) and Class 6 (3+2, max 4).
Motorola has both Class 4 and Class 8 devices. (The first number is the max
downlink slots, and the number after the "+" is the max uplink slots.) This
can translate into a substantial difference in throughput -- if supported by
the carrier, Class 8 is 33% faster on downlink than Class 4.

* Connections between handsets and "tethered" devices (e.g., notebook
computer, PDA) are typically implemented as a serial port, either real or
virtual, and port speed usually defaults to 115 Kbps. (My own Bluetooth stack
is implemented as a virtual serial port that will go as fast as 921.6 Kbps,
but which runs at only 115.2 Kbps by default.) While 115 Kbps is generally
fast enough for GPRS and CDMA 1X, it can be a bottleneck for EDGE, UMTS, and
CDMA EV-DO. In general, I recommend port speed of 230 Kbps for GPRS and CDMA
1X, 460 Kbps for EDGE, and 920 Kbps for UMTS and CMDA EV-DO.

* Pricing above is based on plans available in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Plans and prices may vary in other areas.

--
Best regards,
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/>
CABLE MODEM/DSL GUIDE: <http://Cable-DSL.home.att.net/>